How actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr helped create technology behind Wi-Fi trends now
She was both a screen goddess and brilliant inventor who we have to thank for Wi-Fi.
The Austrian-born Jewish-American Hedy Lamarr left her domineering husband behind in the early 1930s and fled to London, where she was spotted by the American chief of MGM studios.
The beauty, who was married six times, emigrated to the United States and went on to star in films with the likes of Spencer Tracy, James Stewart and Clark Gable in what proved to be a glittering career.
Lamarr helped to devise the technology she became most famous for in response to the Nazis' repeated jamming of radio signals being used to guide torpedoes to their targets in the Second World War.
She was both a screen goddess and brilliant inventor who we have to thank for Wi-Fi. Above: Austrian-born Jewish-American Hedy Lamarr with co-star Victor Mature in 1949 film Samson and Delilah
Along with composer and fellow inventor George Antheil, she created a device that allowed 'frequency hopping', which made the radio transmissions harder to intercept and allowed the missiles to reach their target.
The pair based the system on a piano's 88 keys and submitted a patent for the idea in 1941.
A patent was then granted the following year, but the US Navy opted against using the technology in the war.
Instead, Lamarr supported the war effort by using her celebrity to help sell war bonds in her adopted country.
Her technology was later used on US warships during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 - although Lamarr did not receive a penny.
Lamarr left her domineering husband behind in the 1930s and fled to London, where she was spotted by the American chief of MGM studios. Above: Lamarr working as a scientist
The beauty, who was married six times, emigrated to the United States in the 1930s. Above: Lamarr in Samson and Delilah
Lamarr is credited in a total of 35 films, but the actress was reportedly bored of the roles she was given that were often light on lines and focused on her looks
Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr are seen in the 1949 American film Samson and Delilah
It was this frequency hopping technology that was also a precursor to wi-fi, GPS and Bluetooth, which are all used by billions of people around the world today.
Lamarr was
